Ottawa, June 24 (IANS) Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has denied meddling in an investigation into the 2020 mass shooting, the worst the country's history.
Brenda Lucki, head of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), has been accused of pressuring local officers to help advance Trudeau's gun control plans, the BBC quoted the Halifax Examiner as saying, which was the first to report on the development.
According to the Halifax Examiner, the accusation stemmed from notes made by a local RCMP officer, released as part of a public investigation into the mass shooting on April 18-19, 2020, during which a gunman posing as a police officer killed 22 people in Nova Scotia.
The suspect died in a stand-off with police.
Addressing reporters on Thursday, Trudeau said that his government "did not put any undo influence or pressure" on police.
"It is extremely important to highlight that it is only the RCMP, it is only police that determine what and when to release information," the BBC quoted the Prime Minister as saying.
Denying the accusations, Commissioner Lucki said in a statement released on Tuesday that information sharing between the federal government and police is normal during a high-profile event such as a mass shooting.
The RCMP chief however acknowledged that she "should have been more sensitive" in her approach.
Canada's opposition Conservative Party has called for a debate in the House of Commons, and a parliamentary committee voted on Thursday to hold a hearing into the matter.
In the wake of the deadliest rampage in Canadian history, Prime Minister Trudeau in May 2020 announced an immediate ban on the sale, transportation, importation, or use of some 1,500 makes and models of "military-grade assault-style" weapons.
There are 24,372 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, and 306,888 people who tested positive have recovered. Of the active cases, 986 COVID-positive individuals are in hospital and 146 are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.
This fraud usually includes a suspect calling a senior citizen pretending to be a law enforcement officer, lawyer, or the person’s grandson. The suspect tells them that their grandson has been arrested and requires bail money. In two of the three successful scams, someone actually attended the elderly person’s home to collect cash, debit and/or credit cards.
Planning for a census starts almost before Statistics Canada releases all the data from the current counts, given the complexity and scale of the exercise the agency runs every five years.
Trucks and other vehicles began parking on the highway near Coutts on Jan. 29 in solidarity with similar protests in Ottawa and across the country over vaccine mandates for cross-border truck drivers and broader public health measures.
RCMP found the frozen bodies of the migrants in the snow on Jan. 19 just metres from the Canada-U.S. border near Emerson, Man. Police believe the four were part of a larger human-smuggling operation. A man on the U.S. side has been charged with human smuggling.
The bridge linking Windsor, Ont., and Detroit remained closed to vehicles headed into Canada due to the protest that continued on the Canadian side of the border.
